Simon Douglas Web Developer

Snorkeling at Koh Tao and Koh Nangyuan

The bay on the left is where we snorkelled for most the morning.

May 8, 2007

A day’s snorkeling is around 1600 Baht, and is well worth it.

We set of early from our Nathon residence and waited outside the tour agent near the waterfront. A minivan did a small round trip picking up more foreigners and the staff herded us into a small beachfront office. There were several hundred people there.

After being colour coded–a coloured wrist band to differentiate the type of tour that we booked– we were loaded into the packed catamaran. It slowly crawled its way over to Koh Phangan to drop off some tourists before heading out to our snorkeling Islands.

The whole trip took 2 and half hours. Upon arrival at Koh Nangyuan the staff issued our gear for the day. For the first hour we swam on the main beach at Koh Nangyuan. A net enclosed the main snorkeling bay, trapping hundreds of species of fish inside.

The fish would come right up to you, within a metre, but if you tried to touch them they would dart away easily. I was so concerned about not getting cut on the coral, as many tourists I’ve seen are nursing some kind of foot injury.

After lunch the tour operator took our group to the neighbouring Koh Tao Island. The boat set anchor just off from the reef, and we spent about 2 hours swimming around the corals and rocks.

The water was as clear as the first Island, but with the water rolling onto the rocky coast, care must be used when approaching the shore.

At the conclusion the catamaran took Sam and I back to Koh Samui and it was only then that we could feel our backs and legs beginning to warm. We had forgotten to apply sunscreen there! The days to come would be painful…